Monday, January 9, 2012

“Buy Local,” was the slogan of ad campaigns that ran throughout the holiday season to encourage shoppers to patronize their local retailers to boost their businesses, as well as local economies. “Shop local” has become the tag line in many ad campaigns, including social media and blog mentions. Across the nation, small businesses are finding strength in numbers and feeling optimistic again, hoping that American consumers will realize the value of the independent business owners and their role in the economy of the nation.

For the small retailer, today’s market is incredibly competitive. At a time when big box seems to be swallowing up the local retail scene, there’s a strong movement towards shopping local to help encourage economic growth, but also to find meaning with consumers and how they spend their dollars and their time. This movement has growing, from grass-roots campaigns like the 3/50 Project to the food industry, which has been promoting locally-grown/raised for the past decade and has been partly responsible for the growth in farmers’ markets throughout California and the rest of the country.

If you’re not familiar with the 3/50 Project, it is a campaign that was launched several years ago to get customers thinking about the value of the independent retailers in their own communities. The concept was simple. Choose 3 local/independent retailers, spend $50 in each and boost your local economy. The impact of just those simple acts of spending is profound on that local economy. For every $100 spent in locally-owned, independent stores, $68 returns to the community in taxes, payroll and her expenditures (only $43 remains if you spend in a national chain). If over half the employed population spent $50 each month at locally owned businesses it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue.

It seems simple, but is more complex for customers to understand. The ease of shopping big box is the one-stop-shop concept and the discounted or value pricing. The need for big-box is obvious, as they offer branded and private-label products at prices that the independents cannot.Manufacturers also have relied on the big-box to expand their reach to the consumer markets and to increase their own presence on store shelves. That is a value offered to consumers in terms of price and volume. But the large retailers homogenize the product mix and reduces the variety offered to consumers and consumers are noticing.

Today, fashion consumers do want uniqueness. While, they want to be a part of the “trend,” they also want pieces that speak to more individuality and exclusivity. Big box can’t offer this. The independent retailer has the ability tooffer a greater variety of unique products, without being locked to the rules of the major apparel brands, therefore they can carry one-of-a-kinds, along with the brands that pull customers into their stores. With a major interest in bespoke, hand-made and one-of-a-kind, the independents are experiencing renewed customer interest.

Unfortunately, the online formats are also offering this and competing with independents for sales. The increase in online retail formats is a reflection of consumers deviating from the pull of the big box and seeking uniqueness and variety where they can find it. The internet, a tool at the fingertips of today’s customers, is spotted with online-only retailers and the numbers of retailers online are on the rise.Another emerging trend is the pop-up stores, which are focused in areas where there is a large consumer following in specific markets. The pop-up offers exclusivity, limited editions and a cool-factor to the shopping experience.

There is a need for all types of retail formats, but especially for the local, independent retailers for several reasons. They enhance the makeup of a community, add character to the retail scene and can connect more readily and meaningfully with their customers. In terms of the local economy, they are essential. Many small business owners live in and are active in the communities in which their businesses operate. They purchase homes, food, entertainment in these communities, their children attend local schools, they eat at local restaurants and pay local taxes. These are essential factors to the growth of the local economy and they give these business owners a great steak in the success of their businesses.

According to a news release from American Express, “small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities," said Susan Sobbott, president, American Express OPEN. "There is concrete evidence that thriving independent neighborhoods lead to higher real estate values and more local jobs." The research conduced by American express showed that locally-owned clothing stores in America have staged a healthy rebound in recent years and furniture and décor stores have maintained a high percentage of the market throughout the study timeframe.

According to Sobbot, “small businesses are resilient but they face headwinds in this uncertain economy. If consumers commit to ‘Shopping Small', we can provide Main Street with an important boost at a time when they need it most. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses accounted for 64 percent of net new job creation in the past 15 years, and more business in our local communities will drive more hiring in the neighborhoods where we live."

The greatest advantage for the independent, local retailers is their ability to offer customers services and retail experiences that the larger formats cannot. Today, consumers are increasingly seeking shopping experiences. They want to connect with their retailers. This is where the indies have an edge. With consumers who want a relationship with the store and brand, the independents can make that connection immediately and intimately.

Many local retailers have strong connections to the community, giving back in meaningful ways and most of their owners live amongst their own customers, creating lasting connections.Like the big chains, they are embracing social media as a way to connect with their local customers. The beauty in this relationship is that it actually has value to customers, as opposed to the impersonal presence of the larger chains. Social media is empowering customers to become ambassadors for retailers, brands and experiences. The one-on-one connection made with a store owner and his/her customer is going to benefit more from this “partnering” in promoting his/her business than any big box retailer can. Independents that perfect the use of social media will see strong gains in customer loyalties and, in turn, sales.

Though many locals have been wounded in these recessionary years, some are making a strong come-back by adjusting their inventory, product mix, services and methods of doing business. In many cities and towns, it’s the local retailer that ads the character and diversity to the area and provides for the much needed variety and mix that is lacking in big-box retailing.

The challenges faced by the small retailer are not insurmountable, nor are they to be ignored. This country was built by entrepreneurs and our economy is boosted by local businesses, especially retailers.

Stockton and the surrounding areas have a strong legacy of local retailers who have sustained the good and bad times and whose roots are firmly anchored.While the city gets an enormous about of bad press, given the economy, housing market, crime rate, and other challenges, the small retailers have hung in through tough economic times and are thriving in a challenging economic environment.

With a strong history in the fashion retail world, as well as being a former small retail owner myself, this is a subject that is close to my heart, my history, my emotional perspectives about the industry and my personal relationship with the shopping experiences in today’s retail market.Personally, as a shopper (an a pretty critical one), I want the money I spend to mean something, so a business owner who acknowledges me by name and values my business will keep my business.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Vogue has launched the ‘Influencer Network,’ a platform for advertisers who want their messages spread across social media. The panel of 1,000 influential women with an interest in fashion and an online following are asked to give feedback to clients about new products, fashion collections and ad content. They are also encouraged to discuss the products with followers on their social networking sites to raise awareness for the clients and for Vogue as well.

As a member of the Vogue Influencer Network, I receive a variety of products to check out, try, use and post a comment or evaluation.

This week I received the Clarisonic Skincare system. It's not my favorite, I have to say. The brush doesn't rotate really, it vibrates and I can get just as good a result with a good exfoliator and mitt.

But, when I received Brahmin's Anytime Tote, I was floored. It is a fantastically gorgeous leather bag from Brahmin, the maker of fine leather handbags and small leather goods.

A large box was waiting on my doorstep with the gorgeously packaged handbag. The bag itself is beautifully made with solid hardware and construction. It is a preview of the collection that will be available at retail at the end of April.

The Red card attached said:

Dear Leslie,

You’ve been selected by Vogue to discover Brahmin, a luxury handbag company known for its timeless, sophisticated styles.

It also goes on to tell me that the Anytime Tote will not be available in stores until May. It will however, be available on April 15 on Brahmin.com and in the Brahmin Boutiques.

On Pico Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, not far from where the 10 and 110 freeways intersect in a mass of concrete, the Gap 1969 denim studio was launched in August 2010, in a former cigar factory loft, in the heart of the city’s jeans infrastructure. This week, Gap Inc. begins providing an inside look at the operation — glimpses of the people, processes and products — in a much different type of fall campaign for the retailer.

Working with ad firm Ogilvy & Mather and culture and design Web site Cool Hunting, Gap created 30 short videos, each 20 to 90 seconds long. Some profile key members of the L.A. denim team, including women’s merchant Masako Konishi, men’s merchant Cale Margol and wash specialist Rob Crews. Each reveals a little bit about themselves, like men’s design director Jason Ferro mentioning how his background as a rebel skater, surfer and musician influences his work.

In another video, Crews suggests freezing jeans to rid them of germs and preserve the patina, rather than throwing them in the washer, which drains the indigo dye; others spotlight the ponte knit legging in black and olive, the gummy legging in black and khaki, or give a brief overview of the denim studio.

Gap has a history of using serious celebrity portraits as ads, or dancing models, and being a heavy advertiser on TV. But this season, there’s none of that. While not exactly cinema verité, the new campaign strives to humanize a big corporation by depicting one of its more creative sides and some young talent working in an informal setting.

“It’s quite a shift,” from past campaigns, said Seth Farbman, Gap’s global chief marketing officer. “This is the beginning of a longer-term strategy” that continues for the holiday season and into next year at least, and also continues to feature different operations and people at Gap. Farbman, who is based at Gap’s Global Creative Center in New York, declined to disclose which Gap operation will be highlighted next.

“Increasingly, people want to know the stories behind the products — who’s designing it, where it comes from,” Farbman said. “We recognize that we have to be more open. We had not done enough storytelling about what was new and different at the Gap.”

Farbman noted that the campaign is his first for Gap since joining the company five months ago and that it targets millennials, whose retail allegiances to the Gap in many cases have frayed. The campaign will be more visible in the social media and digital world, than in traditional media. “When you look at how millennials consume information, it is not in a simple, transactional way,” Farbman said.

The videos break this week on Web sites such as Cool Hunting and Refinery29 before blanketing the Internet next week with sponsored content on Refinery29, DailyCandy, FabSugar, Glam, Hulu, Pandora, LookBook, TrendCentral, Rolling Stone and Gap’s Facebook page. The videos will also be shown in the 28 other countries where Gap has stores, aside from the U.S. stores, where campaign images will decorate windows, and shoppers will be able to pull up the videos on their mobile devices.

Print ads are a mix of inserts and spreads in the September issues of Vogue, GQ, Glamour, InStyle, People StyleWatch, Lucky and Rolling Stone, with text written by journalist Ruth Barrett. Larger spreads will appear in Elle, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Nylon, Details, ESPN and Marie Claire. However, the print advertising campaign strays from the “real people” approach with images shot by Cass Bird of “real-ish” people in Gap 1969 pants, as Farbman said, most of whom are cast in street scenes depicting a few locations that these people could be from or seem to reflect, such as Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Portland, Ore., or Nakameguro, Japan

Saturday, May 28, 2011

In fashion, our past influencers are clear: Chanel, Vionnet, Dior, Gres, YSL, McQueen-- all are responsible for a distinct shift in perspective on design. In furniture design, Chippendale in the 1700's, Eames in the 20th century and Piet Hein Eek in the 21st century come to mind. In architecture, the innovators of their day included Frank Gehry and Frank Lloyd Wright.

I think people like Madonna, Gwen Stephanie and Lady Gaga are influencers in music, but have a temporary influence as true trend setters. It is in their saturation that makes them less of an influence, as they seem to become mainstream the moment they are copied. In today's society, people still think Gaga is an influencer. I would say that is true a year ago, but today, she is predictible and is so immitated and followed. This makes me believe she has lost her influence to be a true innovator, but simply a leader with a following. She is not unlike any other leader in the world who has a herd of sheep following blindly as they are lost and looking for someone or something on which to hang an identy.... or adopt an identity.

In the media, Mark Zuckerburg would have been an influencer in the world of social media and the way in which social media would be used today. Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue was an influencer in the fashion media, but her power is continually being challenged by new media outlets, such as online blogs and magazine. Tavy Gevinson, the fourteen-year-old blogger truly challenged the old guard of the fashion writers with her influential blog. Hugh Hefner was an influencer in the 50's with the introduction of the first Playboy magazine.

Watching a documentary on Hugh Hefner in the 1950's made me realize something I had never thought about him- he was ahead of his time, he was not "popular," in fact, when he started, he borrowed any amount of money he could and his first issue sold only 50,000 copies. WIthin a year, he tripled that. He was ahead of his time and went against the grain of society; he did not have a following for many, many years and he promoted something that went to against what was the norm in a 1950's society and forever changed the American ideal of women and created an unattainable standard by which many American women measure themselves. Unfortunately, the start of Playboy magazine made for a perpetually-sexualized undercurrent in society that has become validated through the media and by his own controversial lifestyle. Playboy forever changed the ideal of American beauty.

His magazines were not initially all about sex, but they also included politics and controversial sibjects in the magazine. Utilizing the controversial platform of the magazine, he included in those pages his own ideas about controversial issues, like black rights in America, politics involving President Carter, racial bias in stand-up comedy artists in the 60's, etc. In his day, he was an influencer, but today, his lifestyle seems almost obscene or mundane, depending on perspective, but it is no longer innovative, nor are his ideas.

I am not perpetuating Playboy or any kind of pornography. What I am hoping for is that thought-proving change comes from talking about those who really change a mind set or a society's point of view or at least their discussions.

Are influencers those who have a large following and are popular? Is popular even a component of an influencer? Or does the influencer begin to lose his/her innovative quality because he or she is followed by so many? Should an influencer have an important point of view or vision that is innovative and intuitive to change and can influence that change?

It seems to me that the moment the influencer becomes mainstream the power he or she has is really only to get a bunch of people to copy his or her style and adopt it as their own identity, under the guise that they are truly innovative in their own personal style, when in essence they are only copycats. It seems to me that the moment he or she becomes popular is the exact moment he or she ceases to be innovative. Why is being innovative a necessary trait for an influencer to possess?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

As a member of the Vogue Influencer Network, I received a Brahmin Anytime Tote, a fantastically gorgeous leather bag from Brahmin, the maker of fine leather handbags and small leather goods.

A large box was waiting on my doorstep with the gorgeously packaged handbag. The bag itself is beautifully made with solid hardware and construction. It is a preview of the collection that will be available at retail at the end of April.

The Red card attached said:

Dear Leslie,

You’ve been selected by Vogue to discover Brahmin, a luxury handbag company known for its timeless, sophisticated styles.

It also goes on to tell me that the Anytime Tote will not be available in stores until May. It will however, be available on April 15 on Brahmin.com and in the Brahmin Boutiques.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Vogue has launched the ‘Influencer Network,’ a platform for advertisers who want their messages spread across social media. The panel of 1,000 influential women with an interest in fashion and an online following are asked to give feedback to clients about new products, fashion collections and ad content. They are also encouraged to discuss the products with followers on their social networking sites to raise awareness for the clients and for Vogue as well.

As a member of the Vogue Influencer Network, I receive a variety of products to check out, try, use and post a comment or evaluation.

This week I received the Clarisonic Skincare system. It's not my favorite, I have to say. The brush doesn't rotate really, it vibrates and I can get just as good a result with a good exfoliator and mitt.

But, when I received Brahmin's Anytime Tote, I was floored. It is a fantastically gorgeous leather bag from Brahmin, the maker of fine leather handbags and small leather goods.

A large box was waiting on my doorstep with the gorgeously packaged handbag. The bag itself is beautifully made with solid hardware and construction. It is a preview of the collection that will be available at retail at the end of April.

The Red card attached said:

Dear Leslie,

You’ve been selected by Vogue to discover Brahmin, a luxury handbag company known for its timeless, sophisticated styles.

It also goes on to tell me that the Anytime Tote will not be available in stores until May. It will however, be available on April 15 on Brahmin.com and in the Brahmin Boutiques.

Friday, February 18, 2011

of the Interior Design field to share their insights and advice with students and the community.

On February 23rd, notables from the field of Interior Design will be converging on Stockton and the entire community is invited to participate. The program is hosting this event to expose its students to some amazing industry professionals and to the realities of the career. The hope is also to share this with the community and anyone interested in pursuing a career in Interior Design.

Kerrie Kelly, Proprietress of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab, is an accomplished interior designer, author, instructor and multi-media consultant. An ASID certified interior designer and owner of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab, based in Sacramento, she authored “Home Décor, a Sunset Design Guide” published by Oxmoor House in September 2009. The book is still a defining guide to all styles of home décor. In addition to being a published author, she is a certified aging-in-place specialist (CAPS), a subject matter expert for Pearson Publishing, and the Academic Director for The Art Institute of California, Sacramento. Kerrie’s start in interior design came from early family influences that allowed her to pursue her studies at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, California. Since then, her portfolio includes experiences with Macy’s, Ralph Lauren, All American Design and Furnishings, Inc. and Del Webb’s Sun City

KEVIN MANLEY- Foodservice Designer/Sales Consultant

Kevin has over 25 years of sales, installation and design in the foodservice industry. He is currently wearing two hats with being employed for eleven years by Yaffee Restaurant Supply in Sacramento and as designer for his own company, KM Design. Kevin has completed projects all over Northern California including Friar Tucks in Nevada City, Bistro 33 at the Mercedes Benz Dealership in Rocklin, Pacheco High School in Los Banos and Maranello’s in Fair Oaks. Some of these projects being design and some contracts for equipment. Always changing health codes, mechanical codes and NSF standards keep Kevin busy to stay on top of his trade. Kevin gives a big thank you to Delta College for teaching him auto-cad design. Kevin just recently designed and installed one of the first Mercedes auto dealerships with a full service restaurant inside the dealership showroom in Rocklin.

MARIKO PARRIS- LEED Certified Designer

Mariko is a space planner and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accredited professional for Durst Interiors in Lodi. Parris received a bachelor's degree from California State University, Sacramento and pursued a certificate in green building and sustainable design with the University of California, Davis. Previously, she worked as a designer for Ambiance Interiors and was co-owner of Parris Tile & Stone. Parris is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and the International Interior Design Association. Mariko is currently space planning the move of the city hall departments to the city owned WaMu building. She is also space planning projects at the HSA County building downtown Stockton.

Zack, a product of San Joaquin Delta College, studied Interior Design at SJDC and moved to Sacramento to expand his experience in the design industry. After a few experiences, he landed at Lumens Lighting in Sacramento. Through his career, he’s created lighting design for restaurants, hotels, homes and salons. His projects include:The AVE Lounge, Stockton; Wine and Roses, Lodi; Wasabi Sushi: Folsom; Blade Barber and Sugar Salon: Sacramento; Deda Salon at the Sterling Hotel: Sacramento;The Shady Lady Saloon: Sacramento; Christmas and Co: Old town Sacramento; Flowjo Yoga, Davis, just to name a few. There are many many more residential and commercial spaces, including lighting jobs with Kerrie Kelly Design Lab. Kerrie and Zack will be festured in Sacramento Magazine together for the Lighting. He was also featured in her book Home Décor.

The event will begin at 5 pm with a general forum and Q & A with the panelist.

Then breakout sessions will allow attendees to talk with the insiders one-on-one and develop a greater understanding of the career.